Thursday, 9 August 2007

Fast food

In search of a quick post-work supper my natural instinct is to seek out the fast and the cheap. Unsurprisingly then I often find myself with a large bowl of dumplings at the Camy where the recent change in management has only brought good things. I then proceed to spend the money I have just saved at dinner on cocktails at that other Melbourne institution, Hairy Canary.

Pork dumplings in chilli oil

Good Evening Vietnam (passionfruit and vietnamese mint with vodka) and Lemon Cheesecake Martini

Although these are undeniably quintessential Melbourne dining experiences, some nights I find myself just wanting to be at home with the remote or a book in hand. My natural instinct on these evenings is to order takeaway but logic prevails. Even if you phone ahead it is still a good twenty minutes before the food is in your hands and longer still until it's on your table. If you can find somewhere that delivers more often than not you'll pay a ludicrous amount for an overly processed pizza and have the grease stained box to remind you in the morning. It just makes sense to make your own.

The Simplest Pizza

This will yield enough dough for two medium sized pizzas. I will leave it to you to determine how many servings that equates to in your household. The quantities can easily be doubled or halved. The only time consuming part is waiting for the dough to rise. Use it as an excuse for a long soak in the tub.

Combine the sugar with 180ml lukewarm water. Add yeast and stir. Set aside for 10 minutes. If your yeast is working correctly it should be foamy.

While you wait, combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture and oil. Mix until a rough ball forms. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for five minutes until smooth and elastic. Form into a ball and lightly oil the surface. Place in a bowl covered with a damp tea towel for one hour or until doubled in size. The time varies with the weather.

Pre-heat your oven to 220C and place your pizza stone or tray in to pre-heat for 15 minutes to ensure a crispy finish.

When dough has risen divide in half and punch down the balls. Roll out as thinly as possible. It may be easier to do this between two sheets of baking paper. When the desired thickness is reached simply peel off the top sheet and transfer the bottom sheet onto the heated tray.

Brush base with olive oil and top as desired. Today I opted for a little tomato paste, olives and proscuitto topped with parmesan and mozzarella. A real fridge cleaning exercise in case you didn't guess. Any recipe that lets me do that is surely a keeper.

Though partial to a wee takeaway Indian meal every now and again I don't like takeaway pizza at all. In fact, I sometimes wonder if I like pizza at all! Love how fresh yours sounds and I know my partner (a pizza monster) will want me to give this a try!

Lucy, I couldn't agree more about the bath! The martini was pretty good too :)

Anh- would you believe it was my first attempt but at least it won't be my last!

Johanna - I think the key is to find ways of preparing things that seem fuss free to you. That way it's easier to resist the takeaway of all too often disappointing takeaway. Homemade certainly does taste better!

Hi Truffle! Love the names of the cocktails. We had a cocktail party on Australia day this year and it was so much fun. Everyone was supposed to make one cocktail of their choice. A few made classic cocktails but there were also a few creative ones. The party started at 12pm and they left at 2am!

Pizza is what we have at home if we are too lazy to go out or too lazy to cook. It's simple and easily done. Now if we are even too lazy to cook pizza, the pizza delivery is our solution. :) Thanks for dropping by my blog.

Oh, DROOL!! Great minds think alike. Every time I go to Shanghai Dumpling (aka Camy) I can't stop myself from ordering those Chilli Oil Dumplings... if loving them is wrong, I don't want to be right.

And I'm all for spending the money saved by eating dumplings on expensive cocktails (like the cucumber martini with Miller gin at Gin Palace)...

Speaking of Camy, I don't know whether or not you've succumbed to the evil that is facebook, but a few months ago I started a facebook group called "I ate at David and Camy's Shanghai Dumpling and survived (but only just)". I invited eight of my friends to join it as a joke. Somehow word of mouth snowballed and there are now 504 members!

Great looking homemade pizza, by the way. I agree that it can be a bit of a hassle waiting for the yeast to rise, but it's always worth the wait!